Never use a regular jack, like the kind that comes with your spare tire, for jobs that require you to crawl underneath your vehicle. Always use more stable jack stands for this type of work.
If you don’t want to stain the ground with transmission fluid, place a large piece of cardboard or another absorbent material on the ground underneath the pan before you start draining the fluid. This way, any rogue drips or splatters will get soaked up.
There are typically about 6-8 bolts that hold the pan in place.
Vehicle transmissions vary greatly from model to model, so the exact appearance of the solenoid valve body depends on your vehicle. Once you find the solenoid valves, you can tell what the solenoid valve body is. You should be familiar and comfortable with your vehicle’s transmission to take it apart and complete this job successfully. If you don’t have any experience working on your vehicle’s transmission, get a licensed mechanic to do this job for you.
The solenoid valve body will have some transmission fluid on it, so make sure to use a work surface that you can get dirty or put something absorbent down to protect the surface.
Different types of vehicles have different numbers of transmission solenoid valves, but there are typically 2-4. The number of valves completely depends on the make and model of the vehicle and there is no hard rule to know how many valves a transmission has.
MAF (mass air flow) sensor cleaner is a chemical spray solution made for cleaning sensitive auto parts. It is designed to remove oil, dirt, fibers, dust, and other debris to clean and unclog the parts. You can purchase MAF sensor cleaner online or at an auto parts shop.
Make sure you continue to hold the valves over your absorbent work surface and aim the spray can at it so you don’t spray cleaner all over the place.
This will also get rid of any remaining grime on the outsides of the valves.
If the top ends of the valves are all the same color, they are interchangeable. If there are different colors, each color will only fit correctly in the hole that you pulled it out of.
If the solenoid valves have different colored top ends, make sure the color of the cable harness you plug into each one matches.
It’s easiest to do this if you put in each bolt and tighten it 2 turns or so, then tighten them all the way once all the bolts are in place. That way, you don’t have to hold the pan in place for as long.
Make sure you use the correct transmission fluid, as recommended by the manufacturer. For example, you might put Type H Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF) in a Honda Civic, while you might put Dexron III ATF in a BMW.
